This is part three of a five-part series in which the Northern Star interviews Congressman Randy Hultgren, who took office this January.

NORTHERN STAR: Is there anything on the federal level that could help universities like NIU who are struggling financially right now?

RANDY HULTGREN: I’m looking at that, and I’m very open to suggestions. I do think it is working directly with the state making sure as best as possible that we’re preserving MAP grants, different funding options for students to have resources to be able to go to college, but then also recognizing that our best hope for the future is making sure that we’re being prepared for jobs that hopefully will be available, and that they can do that as well without having huge burden of debt on them when they graduate. I think it is the federal working along with the state.

NS: With the economy at its current state and many people feeling the brunt of it firsthand with unemployment, what can you do to help create jobs in the 14th District?

RH: I think it’s the most serious issue that we’re facing. There’s so many significant issues, but that is the one that people feel most directly that the idea now for more than 20 months we’ve had unemployment above 9 percent and that’s the first time since the Great Depression that we’ve had that.

It’s very serious. In our district, we’ve been hovering right around 10 percent for well over a year. So we’ve got to get people working again. I’m convinced that the government doesn’t create jobs, we grow the size of government which is really just pulling money away from small businesses and entrepreneurs and others who could be starting or growing businesses.

So I think the best thing that we can do as a federal government is to bring predictability and certainty back that if someone has a good idea and an entrepreneur wants to start up a new company and take their life savings and invest in that and hire people – that we encourage them as a federal government, we’re not going to punish that.

As we encourage small businesses to grow that’s really what’s going to be what turns the economy around. Big corporations aren’t going to get us out of this, the government isn’t going to get us out of this, it’s really going to be smaller businesses, people with good ideas, people who are willing to pour themselves into something and hire other people and as they do that, our economy is going to start growing once again.